Born in York in 1986, I was always going to be a business woman. Well actually it was between that and a singer/ dancer (Two rejections from The XFactor proved that wasn’t for me). I used to swan around my childhood home – a Georgian farmhouse in my uncles farm with my pretend brief case and many sheets of A4 paper.
After failing to get in to Northumbria University I was lucky to get a place Newcastle College to do Business Management with Marketing and transform that in to a BA Hons at, you guessed it… Northumbria Ha! I was there, I had made it!
Ten years of jobs working in TV and Film Production, Post Production, Advertising, TV shopping – I marketed Nutribullet and a brief stint on the cruise ships setting up the Can Can shows, and January 2016 saw me sobbing on the floor with devastation with my recent redundancy news. Ed and I were living in our back to back terrace house in Otley and I was at a complete loss as to how I was suddenly in this position?! After I peeled myself off the floor, I took to the internet (like in that scene in The Holiday!) I had to get away… my oldest pal kindly came with me.
We were off! To LA! Yikes! Wow! Crumbles! One week later, we were at Gatwick on the runway, I had just spilt my whole glass of Sauvignon (I hate Chardonnay!- too sweet and heady) over Phoebe’s lap and we were about to lift off, when my eureka moment struck me… set your own agency up Olivia. That was it! How hadn’t I thought of this ingenious and refreshingly apt solution before that moment. That was it, I doodled names and slogans for the next eight hours and touched down with a giant grin on my face! I am lucky to still have that grin across my face some four years later!
Sometimes the best things come out of the worst, have you noticed that? While life is busy being a mummy and planning a wedding, I am also a very happy and lucky woman. Thank you to all of you who have allowed me to tell your story it is a privilege.
What’s next? I am growing, fast! I will look to open an office and take on my first Storyteller!